


Those Left Waiting

by Aly_H



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Gen, Grief, Hawke left in Fade, Mabari, post-Adamant, will add more tags if needed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-05
Updated: 2018-04-05
Packaged: 2019-04-17 09:05:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14185581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aly_H/pseuds/Aly_H
Summary: Marian's Mabari was left in Skyhold. Marian was left in the Fade.Varric and her mabari grieve after the events of Adamant Fortress.----Based on a Tumblr Prompt.





	Those Left Waiting

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the prompt "It's just you and me" from @latefortevinter on tumblr. (I owe them a fluffy fic after this.)

Cullen always stopped to pet the old dog that lay by the fire on his way to the War Table, a soft murmur to the scarred Mabari so different from the way he’d smile despite himself and give the Champion a treat for the dog when she was on her way through the Gallows.

The Inquisitor came by each day, sitting and stroking the animal’s head as it lay forlornly on his massive paws, brown eyes fixed on the door – and definitely not keeping Varric company.

Cole sometimes sits there in silence, scratching the dog behind the ear the way that a different hand, rough and calloused from years handling a staff had been. Like there’s a hurt that he doesn’t know how to fix, not in the dog and not in the dwarf. But ear scritches don’t work so well on dwarves.

When Skyhold’s great hall finally falls silent for the night Varric lets out the breath he feels like he’s been holding. Adamant – the Fade – was not so long ago though it feels like lifetimes and, Maker, he wished dwarves dreamt the way that humans did.

Then he could at least see her again.

The dwarf sighed heavily as he stood up, and then looked to the old dog who dragged himself to his feet slowly beside him. The hound he quipped about playing diamondback with had grayed over the years, his right ear still in tatters from the Qunari invasion but perked upright like one of the torn banners over the ramparts scattered bloodily across the Exalted Plains. Other scars stood in contrast to the brown coat in the firelight.

What was the Ferelden saying again? _Clever enough to speak, wise enough to know not to_.

“I wish you would,” he informed the creature.

The words got a head tilt and a soft whine.

The dog had crossed from Ferelden to Kirkwall and back again with the Hawkes. Had seen the youngest die in the Blight. Had howled mournfully when Hawke had to walk up the steps to Gamlen’s house without her brother at her side. Had whimpered and nudged at Leandra’s hand as it fell limp.

He’d wanted to go with when they prepared for Adamant but Hawke had left him in Skyhold. Too old to be traveling all over and definitely too old for the battle they expected at Adamant.

The hound had been at the gate when the Inquisition rode in, exhausted and with many wounded. Varric, trapped in his own fog of grief – he’d never see her again, he had left her behind in the Fade so certain that she would be right there when he turned around the way she had always been, but the Inquisitor and Alistair had followed not Hawke, not his Marian – hadn’t thought of the old faithful Mabari until hours after.

He’d rushed out of the Keep to find the dog sitting at the gate, eyes focused on the road – waiting. Waiting for a woman who would never walk it.

Varric reached a hand out and set it on the warm, scarred shoulder of the animal. As he had done that night, tears he would not allow to shed caught burning in the tightness of his throat and behind his eyes.

In the darkness and quiet of Skyhold’s night he pet the old dog that had watched over Marian for so many years.

“She’s gone,” his voice little more than a whisper. “It’s just you and me now, old boy.”

The dog pressed his weight into the hand and gave a low whine.

The stories always said that Mabari wouldn’t live past their partners’ deaths. Too loyal, too prone to heart break. Varric wondered if the reason that this old, scarred up battle hound had yet to join Marian was because the wily old beast thought _he_ needed looking after.

Well, shit. That was probably it.


End file.
